The Perfect PigIn Search of Crispy & Caramelized Skin at St. Lars

People ask me from time to time: “What is the best restaurant in Oslo for good meat?” A few alternatives comes to mind, like Trancher who specialize in entrecôte excellence, or Vaaghals with their wide selection of dry aged meat. One candidate stands out, though, as a place that not only serves meat, but lives meat. St. Lars at Bislett has a meaty attitude and a big ass grill. If they had a song it would be “All about the beef.” If they got a child they would name it Chuck. If they were knighted the title would be Sir Loin. Catch my drift? Last year, we ate an excellent suckling pig at St. Lars before Christmas, but I heard rumors that head chef Daniel Lindstrøm had been working hard this year to make the perfect pig …

The dining room

I don’t like rumors. I like to know shit. Thus, we brought along Hedda’s sisters and Team Rescue Juice for a meaty meal. You know what they say, it takes two to tango, three’s company and four is not enough people to share a suckling pig – bring at least six people, you fucking twig.

Horse tartare with pickled beets, wood sorrel and quail eggs

Let’s Start with a Horse tartare and a Côte de Bœuf

People think they need to starve themselves before a big meal, but that’s wrong. You need to eat before a big meal. The belly needs to expand. That’s why we started with a round of horse tartare and côte de bœuf. St. Lars‘ tartare is quite unique. The horse meat is packed with pickled beets and wood sorrel before it is shaped as the traditional puck. In stead of egg yolk you get quail egg yolk. As for the côte de bœuf I am almost left without words to describe how fulfilling it was to eat that juicy piece of meat. The fat melts in your mouth and the maillard crust is crunchy from the beating it gets at 900 degrees C on the coal-fired grill. The béarnaise sauce leaves you craving for more and you’ll probably end up licking every drop like Elisabeth did. The fries with garlic skins are scrumptalicious, just to throw in a new word there. How many words can you really use to describe how great something tastes? I’m starting to run out.

The juice! The fat!

Waiting for the pig

Grilled côte de bœuf and bone marrow

Fried potatoes and garlic and the béarnaise sauce of your dreams

In Search of Perfected, Caramelized, Crispy Skin

What is the ideal pig? And more importantly, how do you achieve the result? The suckling pig was already awesome last year, so it was hard to imagine how it could get any better. This year, chef Daniel explains, he placed the suckling pig in a salt brine together with brown sugar and vanilla from Madagascar. Afterwards, the piglet got a sous-vide bath for 12 hours at 67 degrees C, before it was cooked in the oven at 120 degrees C for 1 hour. In the next step, the temperature was increased to 185 degrees C and the door left open to let out all the steam. Lastly, the poor pig was glazed with honey and lemon and cooked for another 35 minutes at 210 degrees C.

The perfect whole roasted suckling pig

The result? A perfect pig. The skin is like caramel. It makes crackling sounds when you break it, just like those insane Peking ducks. I’ve never eaten pork skin as delicious as this. The sides were potatoes gratinated with parmesan, salt-baked red beets, a broken apple sauce and a sauce on cognac, pork broth and brown butter. Holy pig!

The pig’s head!

OMG, look at that crispiness! Like flakes of caramel

The cheek meat is the best

These two love birds, enjoying delicious suckling pig

The babes

The Story of the Rooster and the Executioner

The guys at St. Lars are not nice people. You don’t want to mess with these thugs. Don’t do stuff like stealing their stuffed rooster and put it up for display in your wine bar. Most likely, you’re gonna end up with a live rooster being slaughtered in your bar in front of shocked customers, and they’ll cut the head of the rooster with a pair of scissors, put it on a jar and make coq au vin of the rest. I am not saying that’s what St. Lars owner Andreas Viestad and his restaurant manager Niclas Wallin did, but the general manager at Territoriet wine bar did recently resign to start working in the safe zone of Maaemo. Coincidence?

Head chef Daniel and restaurant manager Niclas posing with the rooster

The rooster

Rooster looks at rooster

The dead rooster

Did you try the suckling pig at St. Lars and how many people did you share it with? Please let me know in a comment.

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Disclaimer

This was a sponsored invitation by St. Lars. The restaurant had no influence on the content of this article, there is no form of cooperation between us, I was not obliged to publish anything, and I received no monetary payment.